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Abeer AlAkel
Cheif of Special Initiatives and Partnerships at The Royal Commission for AlUla
Abeer AlAkel is a prominent Saudi executive currently serving as the Chief of Special Initiatives and Partnerships at the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU). In 2024, she was appointed as the Acting CEO of RCU, following the arrest of her predecessor on corruption charges. Abeer has been with RCU since its inception in 2017, playing a crucial role in various strategic initiatives aimed at revitalizing AlUla, a region rich in cultural and historical significance.
Professional Background
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Founding Member: Abeer is one of the founding members of RCU and has been instrumental in implementing key projects over the past six years. Her leadership has focused on sustainable development and cultural preservation in alignment with Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030.
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Cultural Oasis Regeneration Centre: As the Founding CEO of this center, she emphasized education, training, and agritourism to restore local communities and enhance their livelihoods.
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Key Projects: Abeer has overseen significant projects such as the Journey Through Time masterplan, which aims to transform AlUla into a global cultural hub. She also launched the Winter at Tantora festival, which gained international recognition and set two Guinness World Records.
Education
Abeer holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer and Information Sciences from King Saud University and completed the Program for Leadership Development at Harvard Business School, further enhancing her strategic leadership skills.
Contributions and Impact
Under her leadership, RCU has established numerous partnerships with global organizations like UNESCO and the World Bank, enhancing knowledge sharing and expertise in cultural heritage management. Abeer AlAkel's work is pivotal in shaping AlUla's future as a center for culture, tourism, and community empowerment.12345
Highlights
As centres of the ancient Nabataean civilisation, AlUla and Petra are joined together by a unique bond that spans culture, heritage, history, and geography.
Once thriving settlements linked by the Incense Route, AlUla and Petra exist as wonderful examples of the Nabataeans’ ingenuity, perseverance, and craftsmanship that was able to carve monuments into sheer rock faces.
Living museums and UNESCO World Heritage sites, today they are celebrated as major cultural and tourist destinations overseen by The Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) and Jordan’s Petra National Trust (PNT).
A new partnership between RCU and PNT - signed this week - will work to preserve the unique status of these global landmarks by encouraging the exchange of knowledge, capacity building, and the conservation of cultural heritage.
RCU and PNT will collaborate to drive projects in specialised sectors, with educational initiatives to deepen people’s connection with the past, community-focused projects built around safeguarding historic locations, and research initiatives in partnership with key stakeholders and experts on the ground.
A unique pilot programme in AlUla will support RCU’s ‘Rawi’ programme to uplift the region’s rich history of oral storytelling and poetry by training residents in folklore traditions to be shared with community members and visitors.
With the long-term aim of deepening our understanding of the practices and rituals that shaped AlUla and Petra, RCU and PNT will engage younger members of the community, including students and schoolchildren, to make history relatable, discovery-based, and engaging for new generations.
AlUla’s Tomb of Lihyan in Hegra and Petra’s Al-Khazne mausoleum are windows into a world and a people that have been lost to history. As institutions created for cultural and heritage conservation, RCU and PNT will ensure the legacy of AlUla and Petra is remembered, relevant, and remains intact.
#AlUla #Petra #SaudiVision2030
